Techmeme: Google punishes Rap Genius in search ranking for SEO practices, founders seek resolution (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise

December 26, 2013, 4:30 PM

Top News

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Christmas delayed: Amazon offers $20 gift cards, refunds shipping charges after UPS and FedEx problems — Didn't get what you expected under the tree? It's probably marooned in a package delivery center. — Following widespread complaints about absent packages, Amazon …

More: internetretailer.com, Business Insider, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, AllThingsD, The Next Web, SlashGear, louisgray.com, TechnoBuffalo, Gotta Be Mobile and IntoMobile

Shelly Banjo / Wall Street Journal:

Surge of online orders causes fulfillment, delivery delays, frustrates customers on Christmas — Shipping Delays Left Many People With Little to Put Under Tree … Many shoppers are blaming online retailers for stealing Christmas. — Companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Kohl's Corp …

More: UPS, BetaNews, BestTechie, NBCNews, VatorNews, Business Insider, The Verge, Corporate Intelligence and InvestorPlace

Tweets: @levie and @eholmeswsj

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

Dogewallet announces Dogecoin theft, a dubious milestone for the new cryptocurrency that started as a joke — Millions Of Dogecoins Stolen In Apparent Heist — Much robbery, so anger, etc. Users of the functional joke currency are reporting emptied wallets.

More: doges.org, The Verge, SiliconANGLE, Forbes, TechCrunch, ReadWrite, Business Insider, Vacuum, VentureBeat, Mashable, Mediaite, Tech in Asia, Gizmodo, The Next Web and Electronista

Tweets: @daweiner, @cshirky, @samir, @tmfbiggles, @fmanjoo, @dcbigjohn and @russellbrandom

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Amazon's “best ever” season saw 1M new Prime members in one week, 426 items sold per second — Amazon Prime tops 20 million members as company touts its best holiday season ever — Amazon is exiting the 2013 holiday season with “tens of millions” of Amazon Prime members …

More: NYT Bits, Quartz, AllThingsD, CNET, Gigaom, The Verge, VatorNews, Businessweek, Tech Trader Daily, Gigaom, Benzinga and The Next Web

Tweets: @zseward and @zseward

Thanks:@belril. See also Mediagazer

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Plain Vanilla Games, Maker Of Ultra-Hot Trivia App QuizUp, Raises Another $22 Million From Sequoia — Plain Vanilla Games, the company behind ultra-hot trivia app QuizUp, has raised a $22 million Series B Round of financing. The financing was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation …

More: VentureBeat, Betabeat, The Verge, AllThingsD and The Next Web

Tweets: @semil and @caseynewton

Thanks:@chrisvelazco

Farhad Manjoo / Wall Street Journal:

Snapchat's popularity shows we all may want a more erasable Internet — The Internet doesn't necessarily have to keep our digital effluvia around forever. Do we want it to be erasable? — The Internet doesn't necessarily have to keep our digital effluvia around forever, and Snapchat has proved it.

More: BGR and MacDailyNews. Tweets: @fmanjoo, @stevesi and @hunterwalk

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Google punishes Rap Genius in search ranking for SEO practices, founders seek resolution — Google Destroys Rap Genius' Search Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam, But Resolution In Progress — Google hit back hard today after it learned lyrics site Rap Genius had been using dubious SEO tricks to attain top spots in search results.

Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:

Scores of Music Services Stream Into Crowded Field — Many of the New Models Will Focus on Genre — The number of music-streaming services is set to explode next year, as record labels have warmed up to the idea of renting consumers access to a vast collection of tunes, rather than selling them individual albums or songs.

Tweets: @zseward

Steve Dent / Engadget:

LG mum on smartwatch rumors but confirms that a wearable device is coming — Amidst rumors of 2K displays and octa-core CPUs for the LG G3, the Korea Herald has just added another: the upcoming smartphone will come with a G-Arch smartwatch and G-Health fitness band.

More: The Korea Heald, VentureBeat, WebProNews, TechnoBuffalo, TechnoBuffalo, Yahoo! News and Droid Life. Tweets: @liliputingnews

Shelly Banjo / Wall Street Journal:

Online retailers mine transaction data to discourage returns, a growing problem — Rampant Returns Plague E-Retailers — Sellers Suggest Sizes and Redirect Discounts to Break Bad Habits — Free shipping and lenient return policies have given online retailing a huge boost.

More: Intuitive Systems, SlashGear and Marketing Pilgrim. Tweets: @notaxation

Jenny W. Hsu / Wall Street Journal:

Taiwan fines Apple $667K for influencing carriers' iPhone pricing, can face additional $1.6m if it fails to comply — Taiwan Fines Apple for iPhone Price-Plan Meddling — Island's fair-trade body says Apple told mobile-service providers how to charge for handsets

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

KakaoTalk is used by 93% of South Korean smartphone owners, expects $200M revenue in 2013 — With $200 Million in Revenue, South Korea's Top Messaging App Is All Smiley Faces — In South Korea, there's no escaping KakaoTalk. The country has a smartphone penetration rate of 73 percent …

Tweets: @papadimitriou. Thanks:@electricwaffles

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model — Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy. Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.

UiPath:

Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation — UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries

Zoho:

Mastering bot filtering and Apple MPP compliance — Why is bot filtering important for your business? As marketers, we live and breathe data. Open rates, click-through rates, conversions—these metrics serve as the compass that guides our campaigns.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:

The New Netflix

The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.

Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.

Sponsor this podcast

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Ian Rogers tells me I need a crypto wallet

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Azeem Azhar's Exponential View:

What does Spain's blackout mean for the future of clean energy?

Azeem Azhar explores how AI and exponential technologies are shaping our future.

Subscribe to Azeem Azhar's Exponential View.

Invest Like the Best:

David Senra - The Focused Few

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Grit:

HubSpot CEO on the Future of SaaS, AI, & Leading Through Change

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Lenny's Podcast:

Inside Devin: The world's first autonomous AI engineer that's set to write 50% of its company's code by end of year | Scott Wu (CEO and co-founder of Cognition)

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Add your postcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:30 PM ET, December 26, 2013.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.